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Why bother?

This is a very popular brand of "soy sauce" for take out chinese restaurants in New York. It's made not far from my house in White Plains, NY.

The thing is, there's no soy sauce in it. The ingredients state that it contains water and salt and coloring and "hydrolyzed soy protein." That, ladies and gentlemen, isn't soy sauce.

So, why, after paying rent, importing chefs, going shopping, putting up the signs, printing all those menus, cutting all those vegetables, cooking everything and then serving it in clever but expensive take out containers would a restaurant decide to save a penny (and the savings can't be more than a penny) serving fake soy sauce?

Does the brown color make diners feel like they're eating something more Chinese than ordinary table salt would? Undoubtedly.